Security system with method for locatable portable electronic camera image transmission to a remote receiver

ABSTRACT

A security system comprises a locatable portable electronic camera image transmission unit which both identifies its own location by utilising the capabilities of an integral position location apparatus module while at the same time electronically photographing and otherwise recording the immediate scene. This combined navigational and photographic information is at the same time both stored within the locatable portable electronic camera transmission unit and transmitted, along with any other desired information such as user name, address and time of day to a distant remote receiver. The remote receiver converts the transmitted navigational information into a display of the location of the locatable portable electronic camera transmission unit upon a map, and this navigational and the other visual information is suitably displayed upon a television screen and is also presented as a hard copy on a facsimile receiver. Thus the receiver of the transmitted information will have immediate knowledge of the exact navigational location of the locatable portable electronic camera transmission unit plus a visual and other record of the surrounding event.

THE FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a photographic security system.

THE PRIOR ART

In U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,143 there is disclosed a security systemincluding a television camera for taking a scene of a trespass upon apredetermined region at a site to be monitored, a video recorder forrecording the image of the scene taken by the television camera, and asensor for sensing a trespass and outputting a signal for starting thetelevision camera and the video recorder. The signal output from thesensor for sensing a trespass and the outputs of a plurality of othersensors sensing other conditions at the site to be monitored aretransmitted to a monitoring site remote from the site to be monitoredfor display at the monitoring site.

In EP-A-0242099 there is disclosed an anti-theft and locating system inwhich a microprocessor monitors vehicle personal position by way ofcoordinates obtained from Navstar Global Positioning System. Uponactivation, through sensing unauthorized access to a vehicle or a changein its position, the microprocessor identifies itself to a centraldispatch office and alerts the same to the nature of the disturbance.The system periodically updates vehicle location by way of digitalsignals sent to the central dispatch station by way of a cellular mobiletelephone system. The central dispatch office can interrogate themicroprocessor via the telephone link by addressing its unique serialnumber in order to obtain its position should the vehicle be stolenwithout activation of the microprocessor. A plurality of logic inputsand outputs are provided for accommodating conventional antivandalismand anti-theft detectors which may be integrated into the totalprotection system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention there is provide a securityapparatus comprising in combination an electronic camera and atransmitter for transmitting the image received by the electronic camerato a remote receiver characterised in that the apparatus is portable andincludes a position location apparatus and in that the transmitter alsotransmits the positional information received from the position locationapparatus.

The present invention also provides the combination of the aforesaidportable security apparatus and a remote receiving apparatus adapted toreceive the information transmitted by the transmitter of the portablesecurity apparatus.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a schematic of a security system in accordance with thisinvention consisting of a Locatable Portable Electronic Camera ImageTransmission Unit and a remote receiver.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The present invention will now be described, by way of example, withreference to FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings which showschematically a portable photographic security apparatus of the presentinvention, in which the locatable portable electronic camera imagetransmission unit 1 is made up from a number of interconnected elements,each of which is known per se as a separate unit, namely an electroniccamera module 2, with a camera lens 3, a position location apparatusmodule 4 in the form of a Global Positioning System (GPS) module 5 and acombined electronic memory and electronic transmitter module 5. Thecombined electronic memory and electronic transmitter module 5preferably has a security system activation button 6 and provision ismade for any other preferable sensor 7, for example, a microphone. Thismay be convenient to allow transmission of what may be heard being said.Again such a any other preferred sensor 7 may preferably activate thesystem if a loud noise such as a gunshot or scream takes place.

Any activation of the system will immediately cause the following tohappen. One--calculation of the exact position of the portable locatableportable electronic camera image transmission unit 1 via the positionlocation apparatus module 4. Two--activate as necessary the electroniccamera module 2 to photograph the immediate area. Three--store all thisinformation electronically within the internal electronic memory whileat the same time transmitting, via the combined electronic memory andelectronic transmitter module 5, name and address of the user, date,time of day, exact location, a photograph of the immediate area pluspreferably sound.

All this information may preferably be transmitted using existing radiotransmission systems, for example, cellular radio, via the locatableportable electronic camera image transmission unit aerial 8 to areceiving aerial 9 connected to a distant remote receiver 10. The remotereceiver 10 may be in turn preferably connected to a map display 11. Mapdisplay 11 may preferably be so constructed as to be able to move acursor 12 preferably in the form of a crosswire immediately to show theactual location of the locatable portable electronic camera imagetransmission unit 1 upon the map display 11. The remote receiver 10 maypreferably be connected to a television display 14, thus giving directdisplay of any visual picture and sound transmission, along with theother location and user information. The remote receiver 10 may alsopreferably be connected to a facsimile receiver 15 giving a hard copy ofthe transmitted image and information.

At first glance this combination of modules would appear to need asubstantial size external package to hold them all. A GPS system asproposed by Philip G. Mattos "Global Positioning by Satellite",Electronics & Wireless World, February 1989 still needs a package volumeof 80 mm by 125 mm by 25 mm. However, the capacity of the electronicswithin such a GPS system are known to be vastly under-utilised. It istherefore possible to utilise this spare capacity to permit asubstantial reduction of the volume mass of electronics which arerequired in the other modules. For example, the IMS T222 transouter (anew type of electronic chip) has the capacity of a 10 MIP parallelprocessing computer. Thus we can place all of the signal processingfunctions for all of the other modules onto such a transputer by simplyscheduling any convenient sequence of software events to suit theparticular needs.

The proposed use of such electronics may seem of itself to be obvious,but the resulting small package creates a range of completely newproducts and markets. For example, a child or young girl on the way toor from school will be able to alert his or her parents to any potentialdanger en route. An attractive and vulnerable young woman walking homeat night can alarm the police (or indeed any convenient person) ofpotential as well as actual danger.

Thus the proposed portable photographic security system will providesubstantially enhanced security to any person travelling while at thesame time simple adaptions will make possible the use of such a systemin any vehicle or building.

I claim:
 1. A security system comprising in combination:a portabletransmitter module adapted for selective transmission of a signalcapable of being encoded with and conveying data; memory means withinsaid portable transmitter module for storing data to be encoded insignals transmitted by said portable transmitter module; a receiverdisposed in a location remote from said portable transmitter module,said receiver being adapted to receive signals transmitted by saidportable transmitter module; means coupled to said receiver forinterpreting data encoded in signals received by said receiver andpresenting the data in a usable form; a camera module physically andelectronically coupled to said transmitter module, said camera modulehaving a lens for focusing an image and including means for convertingthe image into data representative of the image, the data being capableof being encoded into signals transmitted by said portable transmittermodule; a global positioning module physically and electronicallycoupled to said transmitter module, said global positioning module beingadapted to receive positioning signals from remote positioningtransmitters, to calculate its current location based upon the receivedpositioning signals, and to convert the calculated location into datacapable of being encoded into signals transmitted by said portabletransmitter module; audio receiver means coupled to said portabletransmitter module, said audio receiver means being adapted to detectambient sound and to convert the detected sound to data representativeof the sound, the data being capable of being embedded within signalstransmitted by said transmitter module; means in said portabletransmitter module for receiving data from said camera module, saidglobal positioning module, and said audio receiver means and for storingthe received data in said memory means; means in said portabletransmitter module for accessing data stored in said memory means andencoding the data in signals to be transmitted by said transmittermodule and received by said receiver; and selective activation means forselectively activating said security system to cause image, position,and audio data to be captured, stored in said memory means, andtransmitted in the form of a signal to be received by said receiver. 2.A security system as claimed in claim 1 and wherein said globalpositioning module is adapted to receive positioning signals from theGlobal Positioning Satellite (GPS) array.
 3. A security system asclaimed in claim 1 and wherein said means coupled to said receiver forinterpreting data encoded in signals received by said receiver includesa map display and indicator unit for indicating on a map the location ofa transmitter module as indicated by the location data encoded in asignal received from said transmitter module.
 4. A security system asclaimed in claim 1 and wherein said means coupled to said receiver forinterpreting data encoded in signals received by said receiver includesa television display for displaying an image as encoded in a signalreceived from said transmitter module.
 5. A security system as claimedin claim 1 and wherein said means coupled to said receiver forinterpreting data encoded in signals received by said receiver includesa facsimile receiver for producing a hard copy of images encoded insignals received from said transmitter module.
 6. A security system asclaimed in claim 1 and wherein said selective activation means comprisesa manually operable switch.
 7. A security system as claimed in claim 1and wherein said selective activation means comprises means fordetecting an audio signal received by said audio receiver means andactivating said security system when the magnitude of the detected audiosignal exceeds a predetermined threshold.
 8. A method of detecting abreach of security in a first location and providing informationregarding the breach of security to security personal in a remotelocation, said method comprising the steps of:(a) upon the breach ofsecurity, acquiring an image of the first location, converting the imageinto transmittable data representative of the image, and storing thedata; (b) upon the breach of security, acquiring a global positioningsignal, calculating the position of the first location based upon theacquired global positioning signal, converting the calculated positioninto transmittable data representative of the position, and storing thedata; (c) accessing the stored data representative of the image and theposition; (d) generating a transmittable signal that contains the storeddata; (e) transmitting the signal to the remote location; (f) receivingthe signal at the remote location; (g) extracting the datarepresentative of the image and the position from the received signal;(h) reconstructing the image and the position information from theextracted data; and (i) presenting the reconstructed image and positioninformation in a form usable by security personal to identify thelocation and nature of the breach of security.
 9. The method of claim 8and further comprising, upon the breach of security, acquiring soundsfrom the vicinity of the breach, converting the acquired sounds intodata representative of the sounds, and storing the data and wherein step(c) further comprises accessing the stored data representative of thesounds, step (g) further comprises extracting the data representative ofthe sounds, step (h) further comprises reconstructing the sounds, andstep (i) further comprises presenting the sounds in a form usable bysecurity personnel.
 10. The method of claim 9 and further comprisinginitiating steps (a) through (i) by activating a manually operableswitch.
 11. The method of claim 9 and further comprising initiatingsteps (a) through (i) when the ambient sound in the vicinity of thebreach of security exceeds a predetermined threshold.
 12. The method ofclaim 8 and wherein step (b) comprises acquiring the global positioningsignal from the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) array.